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When Making a Team: Advice

I'm not a huge expert in team-building, but I figured I'd post some of the basic strategies to keep in mind when deciding on your team just so there's a permanent reference and it doesn't have to be repeated all the time. Note that this is mainly for competitive battling. Also stealing a few things from the old sticky by Sir Chris. w00t.

When Choosing Pokémon:

1. Try to choose Pokémon of as many types as possible for your team. That way you'll be more prepared for opponents of every type. If your entire team is Flying and Grass types, you'll be in big trouble when you have to fight an Ice type or even a Poison or Electric type.

2. Make sure not all the Pokémon have the same weaknesses! Just because you're picking a team with different types doesn't mean you're out of the woods! Jolteon, Corsola, Arcanine, Golem, Muk, and Magcargo might sound like a good, diverse team, but each of these Pokémon is weak to Ground attacks, giving your team a big disadvantage.

3. If one of your Pokémon has a certain weakness, try to cover them by having another Pokémon strong to that weakness on your team. For instance, if you're worried about your Raichu getting beat up by any Ground type that comes along, put a Water- or Grass-type on your team to cover your bases.

4. Always pay attention to your Pokémons' stats. This makes a difference between 1st and 2nd generation, since while both have Attack, Defense and Speed stats, 1st gen only has Special as one stat, but 2nd gen has both Special Attack and Special Defense. Try choosing Pokémon with high Attack and others with high Special/Special Attack. Don't only pick Pokémon with strong Physical stats or only ones with high Special stats or else you'll find yourself in trouble if your opponent's Defense or Special Defense is really high. For instance, if all your Pokémon just have high Attack (but low Special Attack), it will be useless if you're facing a Cloyster or Golem, who have really high Defense.

When Choosing Attacks:

1. Same Type Attack Bonus, also known as STAB, is very useful for strong attacks. Basically that means that if you're using a Normal type like Kangaskhan, using Normal type attacks will be stronger than any other move type you use (plus she has high Attack, and all Normal attacks are physical in these generations).

2. Like I said, always check to see if your Pokémon has a stronger Attack or Special Attack. If a Pokémon has really bad Special Attack, you should focus more on giving it more Physical Attacks. For instance, Alakazam has a pretty bad Attack stat, so don't give it many moves like Dig or Headbutt – use Psychic or Thunderpunch because of its high Special Attack. If you are using a Rhydon, you would not really give it Special attacks, since its Special Attack is rather low. However, with this rule, there are a few exceptions that can work quite well, such as a Muk with Fire Blast, plus you can surprise an opponent with this.

Since Leer lowers the opponent's physical Defense, giving Leer to a Charizard with only Special attacks is useless and it won't have any affect when you attack.

If you're facing a Slowbro, don't waste your time lowering its Attack, because they usually use Special attacks, so the attack won't have any effect when it attacks you.

Also make sure that when your Pokémon are stronger, their stat-reducing moves are also stronger - so instead of using Tail Whip which only lowers Defense a little bit, use Screech which is much more effective.

3b. Similarly, if you want to use stat-enhancing moves (such as Growth or Swords Dance), again pay attention to whether or not it will help you.

Flareon don’t have strong Special Attack, so teaching one Growth is useless - instead, focus on giving it physical attacks.

If your Slowbro is facing a Golem, the Golem will probably be using a Physical attack, so don’t bother with Amnesia, an attack that raises Special Defense.

4. The basic rule of thumb when choosing what offensive (attacking) moves to give a Pokémon is to give it moves of as many types as you can so that you'll be prepared against as many opponents as you can.
For instance, a Charizard who has Ember, Flamethrower, Fire Spin and Fire Blast is pretty useless, because it's all-Fire movepool will only be good against three types of Pokémon. But if you end up facing an Onix or Golem, or even Arcanine, you'll have no attacks to counter that type. So if you want good offense, get versatile: give your Pokémon attacks of as many different types as possible. That way you'll be ready to face all kinds of different Pokémon.

5. When choosing attacks, always look at their base damage (how much they do without considering STAB, weakness, resistance and etc.), accuracy, and sometimes even Power Points.

If you are deciding between Thunderpunch and Thunderbolt for Electabuzz, consider which would be better. Both attacks are Electric and have 100% accuracy, but Thunderbolt has a higher base damage than Thunderpunch. Don’t settle for a Thunderpunch when Thunderbolt is obviously better.

Remember that while accuracy is important, in some situations accuracy may have to take a back seat to base damage. Not every move should be used on every Pokémon, such as Ice beam and Blizzard. On Pokémon with stronger Special Attack like Articuno or Vaporeon, Ice Beam is enough power. On Pokémon such as Nidoking who lack strong Special Attack, Blizzard might be a better choice. Don’t just always pick the same one without considering your options.

6. Different Pokémon can have different uses. Those with high Defense/Special Defense are used to take multiple hits while trying to wear out the opponent, even if slowly. Those who can use combinations like Toxic or Thunderwave coupled with Fire Spin or Wrap can keep doing small damage while keeping the foe from attacking. Pokémon with high Speed and Attack/Special Attack should strike hard and fast, not wasting time with stat-changing moves

7. This place is for posting teams for Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Stadium, Gold, Silver, Crystal and Stadium 2. Teams for Diamond or FireRed or whatever do not belong here. It also means that you can not teach your Pokémon attacks from later generations.

So please don’t ask about moves that didn’t exist in the generation it is from (or that the Pokémon can’t actually learn) and don’t recommend them to other people. Don’t post a team that knows attacks they could only be given via a cheating device – they’re not allowed.

Great guide Psychic! I just noticed a few things I thought I could notify you of to make the guide even better!

2. Make sure not all the Pokémon have the same weaknesses! Just because you're picking a team with different types doesn't mean you're out of the woods! Jolteon, Corsola, Arcanine, Muk, Scizor, and Magcargo might sound like a fine team, but each of these Pokémon is weak to Ground attacks, giving your team a big disadvantage.

Well, Scizor is not weak to Ground-type.

4. Always pay attention to your Pokémons' stats. In these games all Pokémon have five stats: Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed. Try to choose both Pokémon with high Attack and Special Attack. Don't only pick Pokémon with strong Physical stats or only ones with high Special stats or else you'll find yourself in trouble in your opponent's Defense or Special Defense is really high. For instance if all your Pokémon just have high Attack (but low Special Attack), it will be useless if you're facing a Cloyster or Golem, who have really high Defense.

I think 'in' should be replaced by 'if'.

3b. Similarly, if you want to use stat-enhancing moves (such as Growth or Swords Dance) then again, pay attention to whether or not it will help you.
-Tentacruel don’t have strong Attack, so they usually won’t have any physical attacks, in which case teaching one Swords Dance is just useless.
-If your Slowbro is facing a Golem, the Golem will probably be using a Physical attack, so don’t bother with Amnesia, an attack that raises Special Defense.

I don't think Tentacruel is the best Pokemon to use to demonstrate this point because its Attack is only base 10 lower than its Special Attack stat, and as a result of this, its Sludge Bomb is its 4th most powerful attack. Surf, Hydro Pump and Hyper Beam are all stronger than Sludge Bomb, however Hyper Beam isn't useable, and you don't need to use both Hydro Pump and Surf. This leaves Sludge Bomb as Tentacruel's 2nd choice of an offensive move, which, in turn, makes Swords Dance a viable move to use on a Tentacruel.

The best example I can think of off the top of my head is Growth on Flareon. Flareon's Special Attack is noticeably lower than its Attack stat, and when Flareon wants to fit Shadow Ball, Return, Iron Tail and Hidden Power into its moveset, Growth, solely to power up Fire Blast, isn't a clever idea. Tentacruel has room for things like Substitute and Swords Dance due to a bad movepool.

Your guide is pretty darn awesome though. Some guides use a ton of complicated mathematics in, which scares off new Pokemon players. This one on the other hand, is quite simple, yet can give the reader a fabulous team if they abide by your advice.

Shouldnt one of the rules be that you should have at least seven gym badges to post a team(kinda like the 3rd and 4th generations)? It would give the raters a better stand-point on where the person's team getting rated would be.

I have claimed Tyrogue in the official Claim a Pokemon thread!
I have claimed the song Must Have Done Something Right by Relient K
I have claimed Torn from the Jak and Daxter series.
I have claimed Jak II from the Jak And Daxter series.

Pokemazter3001: Please don't double-post and please don't mini-mod. And no, I don't think that rule is necessary. Plus there's no way of knowing for sure if someone is telling the truth if they're got seven badges anyway.

Shiny_Scizor: Your team should be in its own thread and include all the Pok&#233;mons' attacks and held items.

pichu96: If you're playing Emerald, why the heck are you in the Gold/Silver/Crystal discussion? :/ Go to Third Generation Discussion if you're going to talk about that game, please.

For Gen. 1, do we allow "trade-back" moves on Pokémon (ex. Clefairy with an egg move [Amnesia] from Gen. 2 that it could not learn in Gen. 1) during team ratings?

There's no rule against it. If the option is available to you, then by all means. But if you're rating don't use them as an exclusive option, so for instance say "If you can trade back, consider Amnesia on Clefable, but if not then stick with Body Slam" or something along those lines.

I don't think Tentacruel is the best Pokemon to use to demonstrate this point because its Attack is only base 10 lower than its Special Attack stat, and as a result of this, its Sludge Bomb is its 4th most powerful attack. Surf, Hydro Pump and Hyper Beam are all stronger than Sludge Bomb, however Hyper Beam isn't useable, and you don't need to use both Hydro Pump and Surf. This leaves Sludge Bomb as Tentacruel's 2nd choice of an offensive move, which, in turn, makes Swords Dance a viable move to use on a Tentacruel.

The best example I can think of off the top of my head is Growth on Flareon. Flareon's Special Attack is noticeably lower than its Attack stat, and when Flareon wants to fit Shadow Ball, Return, Iron Tail and Hidden Power into its moveset, Growth, solely to power up Fire Blast, isn't a clever idea. Tentacruel has room for things like Substitute and Swords Dance due to a bad movepool.

Your guide is pretty darn awesome though. Some guides use a ton of complicated mathematics in, which scares off new Pokemon players. This one on the other hand, is quite simple, yet can give the reader a fabulous team if they abide by your advice.

Anyways, I hope my suggestions help.

Note that your comment on Tentacruel only applies in Gen 2; in Gen 1, Tentacruel has a whopping 50 base Special (Attack) more than it has base Attack.